Retailers beware: Your customer may know 30,000 people and they are not afraid t

We live in a different time than when I was younger, in the old days if a salesperson or a retailer mistreated a customer they would go home and maybe if you were lucky they told 10 people about their experience. Afterwards those 10 people would eventually forget and 8 of those 10 would still shop at your store, or firm or company. Going back to the 1990′s and some of the 2000′s the only way you could get satisfaction or have your voice heard was to call the store, customer service or write a letter and hope it gets to the correct hands and even may be read. The BBB was really no help but would log a complaint and you were done.

Then came E-mail, wow a great way to contact a company and voice your opinion, then came the MySpace of the world and Chat rooms! believe me, as a retail executive I knew back then that listening to the conversations about your company were important. I would enter chat rooms and mention the brand I work for and see what kind of sentiment there was. Some was not so good but thankfully 90+% was better than I expected (only because human nature is to expect the worst). So this brings me to the title of this post. I was out to dinner with some friends and the topic of social media advertising came up and I was told a story about how a customer that was shopping for a product at one of the major chains when after being rudely treated by a salesperson she walked outside and began to talk on her phone. About 5 minutes later an executive for the chain called the store and asked for that salesperson, he asked if he had helped a woman recently with a certain product and he confirmed yes, she is crazy and actually standing outside on her phone. The executive proceeded to explain that she is not talking but TWEETING to her 20,000 followers your name and how rudely she is being treated!!!!

In this day and age of smart phones, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and all the other outlets of social media, retailers and shop owners need to stay awake at the wheel and not forget that there are 2 sides to every coin, heads? the social offense of getting your name out there and projecting your brand in a positive light. Tails? The backlash you usually never see or are made aware too late, the conversations that tarnish a brand to hundreds of thousands of followers, friends, likes and Yelpies and all due to your customers or potential customers experience.